July 2002 - June 2003
In July 2002 Four Lions Ladies raised over £1000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care by taking part in a sponsored abseil from the roof of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Over the past year the Lions Candy Floss caravan ('Flossie') and 'Teddy Tombola' stall have supported 12 such Summer events, including the Garrison Family Day, the Fun Day in the Park and the Hospital Fete, making a contribution from the proceeds to the villages, schools or other organisations involved, with the balance going to our Charitable Trust.
In September we organised our second Young Musician's Concert at the Athenaeum, conceived not so much as a fundraiser but as an opportunity for young people to play, perhaps for the first time, at such a venue and for the local community to recognise and encourage them.
In October we were publicising the dangers of Glaucoma for World Sight Day in the Town centre with the aid of the Town Crier. Later in the Autumn we were out and about again with 'Flossie' supporting the Town Carnival, Garrison Fireworks Display and the Town Christmas Lights switch-on, where the Lions' Father Christmas made his first appearance of the Season. He went on, together with the Lions, their friends and families, to raise well over £4000 during the Christmas Float's 16 journeys around the Town and outlying Villages. The Christmas Float is our second biggest source of funds after the Lions Bookshop in George Street, which, after a number of years there, is now a well-established and, we believe, widely appreciated feature of the Town.
The New Year saw us invited to Shearwater Sailing Club to run one of our 'Horse Race' Nights to help them raise funds. We did the same for Sutton Veny School in May, with over £400 being split between the two organisations and the Lions Charitable Trust. This Easter saw our 3rd Easter Egg Raffle raise over £700, an event in which we were again reliant on the goodwill of the organisations hosting the individual raffles. Finally, before beginning the current Fête season at Heytesbury School earlier this month, we generated nearly £1000 for the Trust during our week-long Charity Shop venture in May.
The Lions Clubs of Bradford-on-Avon, Melksham, Trowbridge, Warminster, and Westbury teamed up in June to facilitate the provision of Alcohol & Drug awareness education in Schools across the WWDC area. They arranged for the provision of TACADE (Teachers' Advisory Council for Alcohol & Drug Education) classroom materials and the necessary teacher training to go with it. 48 out of the 68 Primary, Secondary, and Independent schools in the area accepted the offer of the package which is being supported by the West Wilts Drug & Alcohol Working Group and West Wilts Community Safety Partnership and funded through the CAD (Communities Against Drugs) programme and the new 'Building a Safer Britain Fund'. 55 teachers from 48 Schools in the WWDC area attended the TACADE training programme at The Longfield Community Centre, Trowbridge. The £20,000 funding obtained by the Lions Clubs - in addition to their own contributions - also covered the cost of Supply teacher cover for those schools who needed it to allow their teachers to attend the course.
The proceeds from our fundraising activities have been used in a wide variety of ways to help both individuals and organisations principally in the local community: in total, over £10000 has been disbursed this year (in addition to the money donated directly from our receipts at Fêtes etc which totals over £2500). Some of these good causes must remain confidential to respect the privacy of those concerned but many others have been covered in the local press. The following list illustrates the uses to which we have put the money:
Provision of two wheelchairs for Warminster Shopmobility;
Contribution to the costs of hosting Chernobyl Children in the locality;
Donations through the Lions Clubs International Foundation to Dentaid, Wateraid and the Lions Eye Health Care and Comprehensive Eye Services Programmes;
Donations to the Cot Death Society for monitoring equipment and to the Wessex MS Centre;
Organisation and sponsorship of the local heats of the Lions Clubs International/United Nations world-wide Peace Poster Competition;
Sponsorship of a local candidate for the Lions Youth Award competition and making a donation to his Community Radio project;
Donations to the Beckford Centre and to local Guide groups;
Sponsorship and reward of a candidate for the Lions Leaders in Service Award;
Initiation and co-ordination of the provision of Drug and Alcohol Awareness training and teaching materials for teachers in all the 68 schools in the West Wiltshire area in conjunction with four other Lions Clubs in the area
In terms of community involvement more generally, the Club continues to take an interest in the Lakeside Centre and the Peter Gough Award and is a corporate - and active - member of the Twinning Association, under the aegis of which we are building up a good relationship with the Lions Club of Flers. In addition, many Club members contribute on a personal basis to a number of other organisations in and around the Town.
|
